Keir Starmer has launched yet another racist scheme (Picture: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street)
Keir Starmer has once again caved in to a clamour orchestrated by the far right.
He has announced that there will be a full, statutory inquiry into “grooming gangs”, as demanded by Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage.
The far right seized on horrific child sexual exploitation scandals in England to push a racist agenda. The Nazi Robinson, for example, claims his war on grooming gangs is part of a “civilisational war” against Islam.
The police, councils and authorities failed victims of sexual exploitation because of sexism, not because of race or “political correctness”.
Labour ministers spent months rejecting calls for an inquiry. In January, Starmer said they were amplifying far right demands—now he is the one doing precisely that.
The last inquiry, led by professor Alexis Jay, lasted seven years and was completed in 2022. She investigated child sexual abuse in churches, schools, custodial institutions, political parties and children’s homes.
Jay says 20 of her recommendations have not been implemented. These include a compensation scheme for victims, a new Minister for Children, a public awareness campaign and better registration for staff in children’s homes.
Another inquiry will do nothing to speed up the implementation of these reforms.
Home Office research from 2020 said that “there is no credible evidence that any one ethnic group is over-represented” in child exploitation cases.
But the right wing media and politicians highlight cases where perpetrators are mainly Asian—and claim there is something inherently or particularly sexist about Islam.
But it was the police who treated the victims as objects to be disregarded. One 13 year old girl was found with “disrupted clothing” in the early hours of the morning with men drinking vodka.
A neighbour called the police when they heard the girl scream. The police arrested the girl for being drunk and disorderly.
They weren’t scared of being racist—they saw the girl as a troublemaker. Other victims were arrested for prostitution.
Abuse survivor Chantelle has told reporters that police called her “easy” and labelled her as a prostitute. She was 11 years old.
Another victim of abuse, Jade, described how she was arrested at the home of a 60 year old abuser. She was convicted of being part of a grooming gang and put on the sex offenders register. Jade—who was 16 years old—served 14 months in prison.
The far right love to pose as the defenders of women and girls. They are lying. They don’t give a toss about violence against women.
They perpetrate a view of women as there to do men’s bidding, and as needing a firm male hand to keep them in line.
When did the far right demand an inquiry into sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children in the Catholic and Anglican churches? When did they expose systematic sexual abuse in children’s homes and private schools? And when did they campaign for refuges for women fleeing violence?
The victims have been abused by the men who assaulted them, the state that enabled abuse and the racists who exploit their suffering to spread hate.
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Racism first developed as a justification for enslavement
